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Thursday, July 2, 2015

Book Review: Unseen by Karin Slaughter

I came
to Karin Slaughter a little late and perhaps that’s one of the main reasons
that I enjoy all her tales just as much. Whether they are short stories,
novellas or full-scale novels it doesn’t make any difference to me. Her writing
is consistently good and so are her plots, and in Will Trent I have found one
of the most likeable and unforgettable heroes of crime fiction.

What
makes this character different is his flaws, which are a little bit different
from those of his colleagues. He’s dyslectic, an orphan and someone who prefers
to work alone and undercover, not because he’s misanthropic but simply because he
doesn’t want to see people he cares about get hurt. One could say that Will lives
in his head, and they’d be more or less right, but that doesn’t mean that he’s
unwilling to live in this world, in a circle of friends and lovers; he just
finds it hard to do.

In this
story Trent, along with many other cops and agents from the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation go after an invisible man, a big time drug dealer who’s currently
moving his operations from Florida to Macon. The problem they face in finding
out who he is and arresting him is that no one has ever seen him. He runs his
business in the darkness and moves in the shadows, and whoever comes close to
discovering his identity doesn’t live to tell it.

So, how
do you apprehend someone like that? Perhaps the only chance the cops have is to
get lucky. But even if they do, will they be able to achieve their goal? Big
Whitey, as the drug dealer is called, seems to be someone who’s not only very
clever but also extremely careful. Will hopes to get close to him by going
undercover, but what if the man you’re going up against knows your every move
right from the start?

The
author created a tight plot, with some twists and turns, but mostly with lots
of downs when it comes to her heroes. Every single one of the protagonists of
this series of novels seems to be struggling with their lives, with their past,
and with some memories that they want to create but which perhaps are never
meant to be. Amanda, Will’s boss and kind-of-a-mother, has to fight racial and
gender discrimination every day, something that makes her life miserable most
times than not. Faith, his partner at the GBI has her own ghosts to deal with,
while Sara, his doctor-girlfriend is not the happiest woman around either. Can
these damaged souls live together or around each other and do their jobs
without getting into some serious trouble? Well, they can, and they cannot. And
that’s exactly what makes the story work. Their weaknesses make them human, and
their humanity brings them close, and as a result they have each other’s back
no matter what.

If
you’ve enjoyed the previous novels in the series you’ll surely enjoy this one.
But if you haven’t had a chance yet to take a look at this author’s fictional
criminal world, starting here could be as good a point as any. This is pure,
well-written, and finely-tuned crime fiction, and as such if you are a fan of
the genre, you’re bound to enjoy it.